People in Alachua County can now text 911 dispatch from their cell phones, eliminating the need to speak when reporting an emergency.
Dispatch teamed up with the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office Combined Communications Center to provide the service.
Cell phone providers AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless support the service — a speak-free feature that can prove valuable for certain issues, like domestic violence.
When sending an emergency text, people need to state the location of the emergency and the incident itself. Messages should be brief and concise, and each should avoid the use of abbreviations.
The new service comes with a few warnings, according to a press release. There can be delays in message delivery, and there is no guarantee the message will be received by dispatch. But in some cases, a text to police is more practical, like for those with hearing problems or speech limitations.
The Federal Communications Commission urges people to think of texting 911 as more of a complement to a phone call rather than a substitute. Cell phone carriers and text message providers are required to carry text-to-911 before the end of the year.
[A version of this story ran on page 5 on 11/4/2014]
